Pakistan openers strongly debate Babar Azam’s captaincy

Openers Ahmed Shehzad and Imam-ul-Haq of Pakistan recently got into a furious argument about how Pakistan cricket is doing under star batsman Babar Azam. On June 6, Pakistan is ready to begin their T20 World Cup 2024 campaign against co-hosts the USA in the tournament’s eleventh match.

Regarding Babar’s leadership, Ahmed Shehzad discussed how the right-hander exhibits partiality while selecting players for the national team. Shehzad chastised the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) for reassigning Babar to captaincy in the white-ball format.

“Friendship exists to speak about Babar Azam. He is lugging players from a long run, you see. The players have had a protracted slump in performance. It’s not very appealing. You’ll see that players don’t get to play for very long if I count the number of matches. Had there been another captain, he wouldn’t have kept players for thirty to forty games. On a T20 World Cup build-up programme on Pakistani station Geo TV, Ahmed Shehzad stated, “He should have thought about himself.”

It is noteworthy that Babar resigned from his position as Pakistan’s captain for all forms following his team’s failure to go past the group stages of the 2023 ODI World Cup in India. The T20I team was led by Shaheen Afridi, while Shan Masood was selected as the Test captain. Babar was reinstalled as captain, while Afridi was relieved of his duties after just one series.

Recalling how Pakistan fared in the 2021 and 2022 T20 World Cups, Imam-ul-Haq also mentioned how Babar was demoted as captain against his will. The war of words started, in his opinion, because selecting a player based only on friendship is highly personal.

We acknowledge Imam’s youth and the fact that he is subject to a central contract. When we were his age, our speech was the same. At 34, I’m over everything. Ahmed Shehzad stated, “We want things to be better.”

“I have a central contract with you. I’ve been playing for the past six or seven years, but I swear that when I’m thirty-six, my stance will not change. One can also communicate if they are 28 years old and have a problem. Why don’t you make that claim?” In response, Imam said.